#323: Stepfather 2

Release Date: November 3rd, 1989

Format: Streaming (Tubi)

Written by: John Auerbach

Directed by: Jeff Burr

2 Stars

Jerry Blank (Terry O’Quinn), the murderous psychopath with a fetish for suburban domestic life, is back in Stepfather II. 

But wait, wasn’t he killed at the end of the first movie, The Stepfather (#317)? 

Nope! Turns out that Jerry Blank survived that kitchen knife to the heart and was then committed to a mental hospital outside of Seattle (at least that’s what writer John Auerbach wants us to believe).

Sure enough, despite being locked up for life, it doesn’t take ol’ Jerry very long to fall back on bad habits. 

One day he kills the hospital’s head psychiatrist and a guard, escapes, and hits the road looking for that domestic bliss that still eludes him. He ends up in a suburb of Los Angeles where he assumes a new identity, meets a single mother (Meg Foster) and her 13-year-old son (Jonathan Brandis), and begins conning them into a marriage so that he can later kill them.              

My main criticism of The Stepfather was that writer Donald E. Westlake can’t quite pin down the psychology of his characters, especially Jerry Blank. He ends up in a sort of no man’s land between satire, slasher, and melodrama; it’s fun to watch, but at its core, just kind of silly. 

Stepfather II is even sillier. It doesn’t have much reason to exist, although you do get the sense that director Jeff Burr and his actors are trying to make it work. The results are mixed.  

Just like the first film, Terry O’Quinn is the main attraction here. Sure the movie doesn’t really work, but he’s a hoot to watch when he assumes Jerry Blank’s fake family man persona, as a waspy dope who likes to whistle when he gets the mail and listen to his rice cereal crackle before he eats it. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.